Improvedent in railroad cattle-guards



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Railroad Cattle-'Guards N0, 1425596, I. Patented September9,1873

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ISAAC O. TUNISON, OF ROODHOUSE, AND ANDREW REEVE, OF PIKE COUNTY,ILLINOIS.

IMPROVEMENT IN RAILROAD'CATTLE-GUARDS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 142,596, datedSeptember 9, 1873; appiication tiled V April 20,1872.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it knownv that we, IsAAc (l. TUNIsoN, of Roodhouse, in the county ot'Green and State of Illinois, and ANDREW Rnnvn, of the county of Pike andState of Illinois, have invented a new and useful Improvement inCattle-Guard; andwe do hereby declare that the following is a full andexact description of the same, reti erence being had to the accompanyingdrawings and to the letters of reference marked thereon. v

This invention is designed to prevent cattle getting on the railroad atpoints crossed by common roads, or wherever it may beirequired toinclose the track; and consists in the peculiar construction of theactuating mechanism, as will be described hereinafter.

The device consists of a pair of gates, which are closed automaticallyby a weight 'and opened by the approaching trains as they arrive upon asection of the tracksupported in a peculiar manner, as will be describedhereinafter. p

In the drawings, Figure l is a side elevation, partly in section, asindicated by the line ai, Fig. 2, showing that part of the track bywhich the :machinery is actuated. The approach on the other side of thegate, being constructed in precisely the same manner, is not shown. Fig.2 is a plan view of the same. Fig. 3 exhibits, upon a larger scale, theoperation of the levers in connection with the frame to which the railsare secured.

A A, Fig. 1, is a stout wooden frame or box supporting aplatform, B,having in it longitudinal slots from end to end, as shown in the plan,Fig. 2. On each side of the platform is a gate-post, to the upper partof which is pivoted a swing-gate whose lower extremity is secured in astep, C, Fig. l, attached to the inside of the frame A A. d d, Fig. 2,are posts to prevent the gates swinging too far back. e c are barsSupporting the ties and rails, these bars resting upon. levers m m',which are pivoted at a a', Fig. l, and connected, at about the middle ofthe frame, by a stud or bolt, h, which plays, by the movement of thesaid levers, in a slot provided for its reception, as fully shown at k,Fig. 3. P, Fig. l, is a fiat bar, which oscillatcs upon pivots' passingthroughV each side of the frame. It will be observed that these'pivotsare not centrally located in the bar, but a little to one side. Up-

cross-bar P is secured a box, G, Fig. 1, designed' to be filled withrock or other heavy substance, constituting the balance-weight by whichthe gates are automatically closed. Q,

-is a rod secured in the crossbar P, having a bifurcation in its upperextremity so contrived as to secure the gates in the Aclosed position,so that they can only be opened by operating the machinery provided forthat purpose. L L are beams lying in a slanting position, as shown inthe drawing, their lower ends resting in suitable mortises in heavycross-timbers, the end of one of which is shown at O, the upper partssupporting the ties and rails. Y Y are cross-braces by which the beams LL are framed in pairs, as will be seen by reference to the plan, Fig. 2.

The'operation ot' the device is as follows: When an approaching trainarrives at about that point of the track marked H, Fig. 1, the end ofthe beam L toward the gate is depressed slightly, the other end beingxed and acting as a pivot, and carries with it the beam L, upon which itrests, which beam is arranged in a similar manner, the latter, in itsturn, pressing down the bars e, whose extremities communicate motion tothe levers m m', the vibrating extremity of m actuating the crossbar Pand the arm R depending therefrom, the latter giving the required motionto the gate, for the purpose of opening the same, throughtherintervention of the connecting-rod S. As soon as motion iscommunicated to the crossbar P the bar Q immediately releases the gates,and returns to its former position as the latter are closed.

In regard to the construction of the framcg work supporting the trackconstituting the approaches to the gates, it will be observed that thebeams or levers L L are designed to communicate motion to the gates. Thenum- FFIoE.

ber employed will therefore necessarily depend upon the distance fromthe gates at which it is intended an approaching train shall cause themto open. The action of these supporting-beams will be understood byregard ing them as a series of levers of the third order, acting uponeach other in the order of their distance from the power. Supposin g thepower to act upon the middle of, say, the second lever, L', itsvibrating extremity would move through twice the distance of the power.This doubling of the extent of action in each successive lever isdesigned to counteract the loss of motion incidental to deiiection, thusinsuring the immediate opening of the gates when the train reaches acertain point on the track. The precise action of these levers will be,perhaps, more fuily understood by observing that when there is no weightupon the rails they all lie at the same angle, and, being of equallength, it follows that their upper extremities lie in a straight lineas well as their lower ones. But when the first lever is acted upon bythe weight ci a train the amount of depression there produced will bedoubled in each successive lever; consequently the yi bratingextremities of levers thus acted on must lie in a curved line.Practically, however, this curvature has no existence, its disappearanceresulting, as already observed, from the deection of the levers, whichthis peculiar action is designed to counteract.

Having obtained a patent September 3, 1872, for an invention showing theprecise features represented in this case which are not herein claimed,we desire strictly to disclaim those features as a part of thisapplication.

Having thus fully described our invention, what we claim as new, anddesire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The series of beams L L', in combination with each other and thegate-opening devices, as described, the beams being hinged at one end,and free to move at the other to transmit motion to open the gate, asdescribed.

This specification signed and witnessed this 15th day of April, 1872.

ISAAC (l. TUNISON. ANDREW REEVE.

Witnesses:

GEO. H. HODGKIN, WrLLiA'M H. STOECKEL.

